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More than a pretty face
New Models

More than a pretty face

Tuesday, 06 December 2011
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Marie de Pimodan-Bugnon
Freelance journalist

“One must be absolutely modern.”

Arthur Rimbaud

It takes passion, a healthy dose of curiosity and a sense of wonderment to convey the innumerable facets of watchmaking…

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3 min read

Women want it all: mechanisms and diamonds, innovative on the inside, sophisticated on the outside. Recent years have seen a number of brands build up their women’s collections, and bring watchmaking into a new era where complications are no longer for men only.

What a woman wears on her wrist speaks volumes about how her position in society has changed. Multitasking mothers who meet the challenges of family and career, women’s purchasing power has nothing to envy that of men, and they are no longer content to wear watches that focus purely on aesthetic. Gold, diamonds and mother-of-pearl by all means, but not only.

This entire segment of the watch industry has been transformed over the last twenty years. From an item of jewellery that gives the time thanks to a quartz movement, a long-time feature of women’s watches, lady’s models are now stepping out in the kind of mechanics that were hitherto reserved for men. First on the scene were the major manufacturers with a finger in both pies, such as Girard-Perregaux with its Cat’s Eye or the ww.tc 24 Hour Shopping. Annual calendars have inundated the market, not to mention moon phases, that most poetic of complications with enormous feminine appeal.

ww.tc 24 Hour Shopping © Girard-Perregaux
ww.tc 24 Hour Shopping © Girard-Perregaux
Delectable and mechanical

The recent spate of mechanical gems brings further proof that the market is evolving. While chronographs are a fixture of every collection, the one which Zenith unveiled this year warrants special mention. The El Primero 36’000 VPH 38 mm Lady Chronograph houses the El Primero calibre, the most accurate movement in the world, inside a supremely elegant rose gold case set with diamonds, a delicious contrast with the chocolate dial to match the brown strap.

This has also been the year that a Manufacture such as Jaeger-LeCoultre revealed its command of the delicate art of incorporating mechanical complications into women’s fine jewellery watches. Models such as the Master Lady Tourbillon and the Master Lady Tourbillon Wild are precious packages for time delivered by the acclaimed Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 978. The former has slipped a diamond ring onto its tourbillon, while the latter frames this queen of complications with a halo of diamonds, mother-of-pearl, aventurine and authentic feathers.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Tourbillon Wild © Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Tourbillon Wild © Jaeger-LeCoultre
Ladies First

Equally noteworthy are the new models from Patek Philippe, which has led the field in complications pour elle. When the illustrious watchmaker launched the Reference 7000 Ladies First Minute Repeater and Reference 7059 Ladies First Split Seconds Chronograph, it was clearly addressing an audience composed not only of women who take their style cue from men, but also female connoisseurs and collectors, still a rare breed according to industry insiders; affluent women who appreciate the complexities and challenges this type of mechanism imposes on watchmakers. Is the minute repeater, the most prestigious complication in the eyes of many, chiming its way into more and more women’s hearts? Patek Philippe seems convinced that not only men are seduced by this movement’s fascinating ballet of hammers and gongs, any more than men are alone in admiring the mechanism inside the new split seconds chronograph, whose exceptional complexity has earned it the rank of grande complication.

Indeed, after moon phases, a dual time zone and an annual calendar, the Manufacture has gone a step further in its offering of complicated watches for women with the world’s thinnest split seconds chronograph movement, at 5.25 mm high. A technical prowess that still comes draped in rose gold and diamonds. Marilyn’s best friend now has a challenger in the form of a highly complicated mesh of wheels that is mechanical beast and beauty all in one. Ladies, you read it here first.

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